Bengaluru: With the state Election Commission announcing polls to 63 local bodies across the state on May 29, another acid test awaits the Kumaraswamy government in the state after the Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, state Election Commissioner, Srinivasachari explained that although the terms of 103 local bodies were due to end in July this year, elections would be held to only 63 as the reservation pattern for the 39 other local bodies had been challenged in the High Court.
As byelections were being held for the Kundgol Assembly constituency, there would be no elections to the Kundgol Town Panchayat either, Mr. Srinivasachari said
In all, elections would be held to eight City Municipal Councils (CMCs), 33 Town Municipal Councils (TMCs) and 22 Town Panchayats (TPs) and the results would be declared on May 31, he revealed. The poll notification will come into effect from May 5 and the last date for filing of nominations is May 16 and the last date for withdrawal of the nominations is May 20. Along with local bodies polls, the commission has also decided to hold elections to the two wards of Sagaipura and Kaveripura in Bengaluru. As many as 14, 74,086 voters are registered in the 63 local bodies, of whom 7,37.006 lakh are men and the remaining 7,36, 899 lakh, women. The commission has set up 1, 646 polling booths and recruited 8,230 polling officers for the elections.
The election expenditure of the candidates has been fixed at Rs 2 lakh each for the CMCs, Rs 1.50 lakh each for the TMCs and Rs 1 lakh each for the Town Panchayats.
The commissioner warned members of the Grama Panchayats, Zilla Panchayats and Taluk Panchyats that they would find their membership annulled if they did not submit details of their properties on time to the commission.
